Access to body practices/physical activity during the life cycle: report of retired elderly women

Abstract

The objective was to verify the access to body practices/physical activity (BPPA) throughout the life of retired elderly women participating in a group of BPPA. This is a qualitative study with 16 elderly women aged between 65 and 75 years, selected for convenience, participants of a PCAF group at a Public Health Centre in Londrina, Brazil. The information was collected from interviews with a semi-structured script, which were conducted individually by the professional responsible for the group and analyzed from the content analysis by the category system. Three analysis categories were considered: childhood/adolescence; adulthood; and Old age. In childhood/adolescence, the women reported that they had no encouragement from their parents and had no physical education at school. In adulthood, lack of time and lack of encouragement from partners, in addition to the lack of knowledge of activities offered, were reported by women. Only from old age, especially after retirement, with the improvement of the financial condition and the fact of having more free time, the women indicated an improvement in the access to physical activity, including the possibility of participating in the PCAF group. In general, the results revealed the difficulty of these women’s access to PCAF throughout their lives and reinforce the importance of public actions and policies that seek to increase incentives and access to PCAF throughout women’s lives.